Today, we are all Hokies. 4-16-07
I have been so consumed by the Virginia Tech shootings, I can hardly focus on anything else.
I first learned of the shootings from a TV in bar (one of my accounts) that was showing the news. This was around the time that the shooting first broke, and only one person was confirmed dead. From that point on for much of the day, I listened to CNN on Sirius and listened in horror as the news unfolded. I heard the press conference at around 12:15 when the number went from 1 confirmed to a "ballpark figure" of "over 20 fatalities."
I know people die everyday, even of unnatural, horrific causes. But this seemed so close to home because it was only a little bit ago that I was a college student, going to classes and feeling completely safe and invincible. I still know people who go to college. And this fall, my sister will start doing the same thing.
This could happen absolutely anywhere, and to anyone. It's all too real when it happens to people just like you, people "too young to die" and those who feel most innocent and invincible.
Anyone could snap and do something like this. I had no idea that anyone could be capable of deliberately, and without thinking twice, killing so many people, one after another.
I was in high school when Columbine happened, and I was affected by that too. In fact, the school shootings in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in 1997 I believe, affected me then too.
And now, with Facebook and MySpace, the victims are so much more accessible. Just seeing the faces makes it that much more real... and that much more devastating.
I first learned of the shootings from a TV in bar (one of my accounts) that was showing the news. This was around the time that the shooting first broke, and only one person was confirmed dead. From that point on for much of the day, I listened to CNN on Sirius and listened in horror as the news unfolded. I heard the press conference at around 12:15 when the number went from 1 confirmed to a "ballpark figure" of "over 20 fatalities."
I know people die everyday, even of unnatural, horrific causes. But this seemed so close to home because it was only a little bit ago that I was a college student, going to classes and feeling completely safe and invincible. I still know people who go to college. And this fall, my sister will start doing the same thing.
This could happen absolutely anywhere, and to anyone. It's all too real when it happens to people just like you, people "too young to die" and those who feel most innocent and invincible.
Anyone could snap and do something like this. I had no idea that anyone could be capable of deliberately, and without thinking twice, killing so many people, one after another.
I was in high school when Columbine happened, and I was affected by that too. In fact, the school shootings in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in 1997 I believe, affected me then too.
And now, with Facebook and MySpace, the victims are so much more accessible. Just seeing the faces makes it that much more real... and that much more devastating.